


What's Your Biggest Fear?

by MellodramaticLawliet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidental Marriage, M/M, Magic, Trials, because what are we animals, bonus points if you figure it out, just kidding lmao they're forced to by magic, these two sort out their differences like adults, vague greek mythology metaphor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 14:28:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14022264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellodramaticLawliet/pseuds/MellodramaticLawliet
Summary: Lance and Keith get married accidentally due to cultural miscommunication, but instead of a simple annulment they (of course) have to go through a series of trials in order to break the bonds of their marriage.





	What's Your Biggest Fear?

“I’m sorry…” Lance’s jaw dropped as he stared incredulously at the alien before him, “My _what!?”_

“I think what Lance means to ask,” Allura cut in helpfully, “is what you meant when you referred to Keith as his... husband?”

The alien frowned at them in confusion, which was fairly appropriate considering the level of _what the fuck_ Lance was experiencing at the time.

“The blue and red paladins are married… yes?” The slightly frog-like alien cocked it’s wide head to the side, it’s bulging eyes blinking in confusion, “We wish to know where you would like to hold the celebration in their honor, as is custom in our culture.”

“I am NOT married to KEITH!” Lance protested, glancing to Keith for backup. Keith shrugged back at him, looking just as confused as everyone else.

“But you exchanged the purple flower of betrothal.” The alien squinted at him and Lance felt his stomach drop, “And then at the feast you accepted the dish of matrimony, and preformed the ceremonial dance.”

Lance thought back to the previous day with dawning horror. They had liberated the planet Zephyrus from Galra occupation after a harrowing battle with one of the most brutal Galra generals they’d faced yet.

Afterwards, the Zephyrsians decided to throw a celebration in their honor. Of course Lance had been all for the idea, and to his surprise so was the rest of the team for once. He guessed after such a grueling day, even Shiro the workaholic could appreciate a little bit of leisure time.

It had begun with a procession through the royal gardens, which contained the most beautiful collection of plants Lance had ever seen. The gardens had to be at least the size of five football fields end to end, and had every color flower you could possibly imagine, each more beautiful than the last… save for one.

When they passed the ugliest, stupidest looking flower Lance had ever seen, nestled between a golden fruit tree and a bush that was literally glowing turquoise, he couldn’t help but pick one and give it to Keith.

“Here,” Lance had shoved the purple, oozing, square shaped monstrosity in his face, “The ugliest flower for the ugliest paladin.”

Keith had accepted the flower with a sneer, sarcastically tucking it in one of the buttonholes of his jacket.

“See?” Lance had smirked, “It goes well with your mullet.”

Keith had flipped him off, and Lance assumed that was the end of that exchange.

So maybe he _had_ given Keith some stupid betrothal flower, but they hadn’t eaten some dish of matrimony or whatever, right?

Lance racked his brain to try to remember what they had eaten last night; and with a sinking feeling forming in his gut, he realized he _did_ remember a waiter come up to him and Keith at dinner with some weird pink dessert, but he assumed everyone else had eaten it as well…

He glanced over at Keith worriedly, and noticed Keith’s increasingly horrified expression as he too recalled the events from the previous night. What about the dance though? He didn’t remember any ceremonial dance…

What he did remember however, was drinking a fair amount of nunvil and attempting to teach Keith how to dance Gangnam style… Shit.

“Allura…” Lance turned to her desperately and Allura swallowed.

“Your highness,” She addressed the frog king imploringly, “Can’t you simply annul the marriage? Clearly there’s been a misunderstanding here-“

“No can do!” The king made an X with his arms, shaking his head slowly, “In the ways of my people there is only one way to annul a marriage.”

He gestured to a servant in the back of the room, who hastily ran over to them, presenting a tablet to the king. The king accepted it gingerly and tapped at the screen a few times. Lance jumped as a projection of what looked like an old cave painting filled up the wall behind them.

“Behold!” The king boomed suddenly, catching Lance off guard once again, “The ancient scripture!”

Lance squinted at the wall, “That just looks like a bunch of cave scribbles!”

“Lance!” Allura shook her head at him and he folded his arms petulantly.

“These scriptures are sacred to my people. The oldest ones date back over six thousand years, and the material encompasses nearly one hundred books’ worth of tradition… Would you like to hear it from the beginning or should I skip to the section on marriage annulment?”

“Skip to the annulment!” Everyone shouted hastily.

“Alright,” The king sighed, “It really is a fascinating read though…”

He scrolled through probably a thousand blurry images of painted stick figures, and with each passing second Lance’s heart beat a little faster. What if it was irreversible? What if he was going to be stuck married to Keith for the rest of his life? He glanced over at Keith, who was standing off to the side, his arms crossed, and his face set in his usual mask of disinterest.

Keith wasn’t bad looking, in fact he was actually pretty handsome, if Lance were being honest. He could do without the mullet, even if was a little endearing, but the rest of his features were a... genetic success to say the least.

Not to mention his strength, and Lance would be lying if he hadn’t watched Keith swing his sword around in the practice room, because damn those back muscles… And yeah his personality left a little to be desired, but he was a pretty okay person in general…

It was just the fact that it was _Keith._ Fucking Texan, stabby, emo Keith. Like hell Lance was going to parade around while the whole universe was under the impression he was married to the mullet.

“Ah!” The king announced, shocking Lance out of his staring, “Here it is, the annulment ceremony.”

Lance stared at the projection eagerly, but all he could make out were a bunch of stick figures walking on what looked like either a mountain, or a really poorly drawn house.

“In order to end your marriage to one another, you must complete the Trial of Hyacinthus; which is climb the mountain of the West Wind, and drink from the flowered fountain!”

Lance sighed in relief, “That’s it?” He looked around at all of the incredulous faces, “All we have to do is walk up a mountain and drink some water? Come on man, let’s go!”

He grabbed Keith’s arm, and was halfway to the door when the king cried out, “Wait!”

Lance turned around impatiently, eyeing the king anxiously.

“It is a very perilous mission which few survive…” Lance glanced around at the other Zephyrsians in the room, all of whom seemed to agree with the king’s assessment, “and once you embark upon the path you cannot turn back until you either drink from the fountain, or perish trying to get there.”

“Wait a minute,” Shiro held up a hand, “Why exactly can’t they turn back?”

The king looked over at Shiro solemnly, “The dish of matrimony contains a bit of quintessence from the Fountain of Flowers, which binds the couple to the magic and laws of this planet. Once they enter the threshold of the mountain they must complete the ritual, or their quintessence will be absorbed and added to the planet’s own.”

At this revelation, everyone in the room had the decency to look aptly horrified.

“Allura!” Lance turned to her desperately, “Can’t you use some of your Altean alchemy mumbo jumbo to get rid of this?”

Allura shook her head slowly, “I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way, Lance, this planet has it’s own rules of magic, and I’m afraid that if I mess around with it too much I might end up triggering something we wouldn’t want to be triggered…”

Lance bit his lip, furiously trying to come up with a way out of this situation and coming up blank. Would it be so bad to be married to Keith? It’s not like they would have to tell anyone…

“Whatever. Lance, come on.” Lance jolted as Keith grabbed his arm, “We’re doing it. Where’s this mountain?”

The king simply pointed through the window to the mountain visible through the palace windows, and Keith began to firmly tug Lance toward the door.

“Wait, Keith!” Shiro shouted, “We need to think this through!”

“Yeah man,” Lance dug his heels in, frustrated that Keith could pull him around so easily, “I don’t know about you, but I’d definitely prefer not to die today…”

“We’re paladins of Voltron, Lance,” Keith raised an eyebrow at him, “we risk our lives every day. Why should this be any different?”

Lance sputtered for a second, trying to think of a response. Seeing Lance's reluctance Keith sighed, "Please, Lance. Let's just get this over with."

Shiro, Coran, and Hunk all looked distinctly uncomfortable, but Allura and Pidge were nodding slowly.

“I suppose it’s up to the two of you.” Allura said reluctantly, “But you should really wait and get some more information first.”

“Will the Galra wait?” Keith frowned, “The longer we’re stuck on this planet trying to fix Lance’s mistake, the longer we’re leaving the rest of the universe in the hands of the Galra.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Lance pulled his arm out of Keith’s grasp, “What do you mean “Lance’s mistake?” You were the one who wanted to eat the pink cake thingy!”

Keith grit his teeth in annoyance, “You gave me the flower in the first place!”

“Guys!” Shiro yelled, “You can argue about this later, for now we need to decide what you two are going to do to fix this.”

Lance and Keith glanced at one another for half a second before they both announced, simultaneously, “We’re going.”

Sure enough, an hour later saw them trudging up the mountain armed with nothing but their bayards and a few days rations of food.

“It should only take you about a day to reach the top, but you can never be too sure!” The king had told them, and then winked, as if he’d implied something worth winking about, but the effect had been lost on Lance, who had been in a perpetual state of confusion since the word “husband” had initially been announced.

The others had given them words of encouragement, and Shiro had leaned in and whispered something in Keith’s ear that made him blush and storm away angrily, but all Lance could focus on was making it up the steep incline through the dry sweltering air.

“It must be summer here.” Lance thought out loud.

“Probably.” Keith grunted, and Lance glanced over at him.

Keith was walking a good ten feet away from him, and if he was remembering correctly, hadn’t looked directly at him since they’d left the palace.

“Hey.” Lance prompted, narrowing his eyes when Keith didn’t respond, “ _Hey_.”

“What, Lance?” Keith looked over at him tiredly, and Lance had to reorganize his thoughts before replying.

“Uh… how are you doing with all of… this?” He asked awkwardly, and Keith’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“How do you think I’m doing?”

“I don’t know, man,” Lance floundered, nearly walking into a tree, “it just seems like you’re mad at me or something.”

Keith’s eyes narrowed, “I’m not mad at you Lance, I just want this to be over with.”

With that he trudged away ahead of Lance, and Lance scrambled to catch up, sputtering indignantly.

“Hey wait a second, mullet brain-“

He didn’t get to finish his thought as the trees shifted around them, moving to create a ring of clear space, as well as effectively barring escape from any angle.

“Oh great.” Lance reached for his bayard, “Your attitude is so bad, it offended the trees.”

Keith opened his mouth to retort just as the ground opened up in front of them and a lion crawled out.

“What the fu-“

Lance was cut off as the lion turned to face them, it’s eyes strangely human like, and it began to speak with a woman’s voice, “If you wish to drink from the fountain of flowers, you must first answer me these questions three.”

Despite the situation, Lance couldn’t help but recall the bridge scene from Monty Python, but his laughter died as soon as it started when he met Keith’s unamused glance.

“Alright.” Keith stepped forward, lowering his bayard, “We’ll play. Ask us your riddles.”

The lion grinned savagely and Lance shivered at the sight of it’s teeth, each easily as long as his index finger.

“First question.” The lion’s eyes shot to Lance, “What is your partner’s favorite color?”

Lance frowned, turning to Keith. This was easy, wasn’t it? It was red, right, like his lion?

Keith’s eyes suddenly looked afraid and he opened his mouth silently before grabbing his throat.

“Keith?!” Lance reached out as the lion began to laugh.

“He is fine, blue one. He simply cannot speak until you answer the question. To avoid cheating of course.”

Lance gulped, his brain suddenly frozen as panic raced through him. It was such a simple question, why didn’t he know the answer?

He swallowed nervously, glancing back at the pitiless expression of the lion when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned to Keith, who met his eyes steadily and nodded. He could do this. They were paladins of Voltron. Their minds had connected on so many occasions, he wasn’t about to be felled by a question as dumb as “What’s Keith’s favorite color.”

“Black.” Lance stated, locking eyes with the lion confidently.

The lion’s grin faded, and Lance had a brief moment of self doubt before the lion turned then to Keith.

“And the blue one’s favorite color?”

Keith cleared his throat, barely blinking before confidently announcing, “Red.”

“Correct.” The lion’s grin returned, “Round two.”

“Wait hold on a second.” Lance frowned, “How did you know that so quickly?”

“Because you overshare everything.” Keith folded his arms, “Now let’s just get through this.”

Lance frowned, reluctantly turning back to the lion. He didn’t overshare that much.

“Round two,” The lion repeated, Lance thought he could detect a hint of amusement in it’s voice as it met his eyes once again, “What is the red one’s favorite animal?”

Lance blanked, “Uhh…” He glanced over to Keith, who was silently urging him on with his eyes.

Lance thought back through the entire time he’d known Keith, had they ever had a conversation about animals?

He racked his brain but came up short. He glanced desperately at Keith as the lion announced, “Thirty ticks.”

“Uhhh… umm…” Lance bit his lip, his heart racing, just as his brain conjured up an image of Keith in a market place at a trading outpost, looking at a selection of small statues for sale.

“Hippo!” Lance exclaimed, praying to any deity that would listen that he was correct.

Sure enough, the lion turned to Keith, “And the blue one’s favorite animal?”

“Sharks.” Keith said without batting an eye.

Lance gaped, and Keith just shrugged, “You’re predictable.”

Lance’s protest was drowned out by the lion, “Third and final round. If you answer correctly you may proceed to the next trial.”

Lance took a deep breath, preparing himself mentally. He could do this.

“What is the other’s biggest fear?”

Lance gaped at the lion, “What?!” He turned to Keith, who looked like he wanted to die, “How the hell am I supposed to know that?”

“Search your memories. Search your heart.”

“Oh great, thanks.” Lance rolled his eyes, “That’s really helpful.”

He jumped as Keith hit his arm, pointing to his head. Right. Think.

Lance bit his lip as he once again shifted through his memories for information he could piece together.

Things Keith cared about: Voltron, Shiro, his knife… knowledge about his past? Could his biggest fear be never finding out about his past?

Lance opened his mouth, but his tongue failed him as he went to speak the words.

No… that wasn’t it…

“Do you have an answer, blue one?”

“Yes.” Lance glanced up, suddenly sure of the answer, “Keith’s biggest fear is losing the people he loves.”

There was a tense moment of silence, then the lion grinned, turning to Keith for the final time, “And the blue one’s biggest fear?”

Lance wasn’t surprised as Keith immediately whispered, “Losing the people he loves.”

 The lion pulled it’s lips back in another horrifying grin, before sinking slowly back into the ground, “Very good.”

Lance swallowed heavily as the trees around them shifted back into their normal positions. He glanced over at Keith, who seemed to be deep in thought, but couldn’t find anything witty to say so instead he gestured silently toward the path ahead of them, relieved when Keith nodded and led the way up the mountain once again.

It wasn’t long before they met their next challenge, and while Lance had been nervously checking their surroundings for another surprise, this trial quite literally walked up to them.

They had just entered a clearing when Keith stopped dead in his tracks. “ _What_ is _that_.”

Lance glanced over to Keith, who was staring above the tree line in front of them, which is when he felt the ground shake menacingly, and noticed the giant looming over the clearing.

It seemed to be made entirely of metal, possibly gold or bronze, and Lance definitely didn’t like the look of the sword it was holding.

His bayard materialized in his hands just in time for him to nearly trip in surprise as a booming voice echoed around the clearing, “TRIAL TWO BEGINS NOW. FACE THE GIANT OR DIE.”

“Finally,” Keith muttered, his bayard extended before him, “Something straightforward.”

Something ticked in Lance’s brain and he said, “Wait-“ Just as Keith tucked and rolled, and a sword the size of a semi-truck lodged itself in the ground where he’d been standing.

“Fuck!” Lance tripped backward, scrambling to his feet as the giant wound back up for another blow.

This one landed about a foot behind him as Lance ran for his life, glancing around frantically to find where Keith had run off to. It registered in the back of his mind that despite the giant’s strength it seemed to be extremely slow.

If his estimation was correct, he had about forty seconds between each time the sword hit the ground behind him to fire a shot off at the giant.

With this new knowledge, Lance waited until the giant swung again, this time missing him by less than a hair, and turned, firing a shot from his bayard directly into the giant’s face.

He grinned as the shot hit it directly in the eye, but took a step back in horror as the shot simply bounced off it’s metal skin, not leaving so much as a scratch.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Keith running back toward him just as the giant stepped through the tree line, fully into the clearing.

The trees bent around them, securing the borders of the field. It was win or die, and his only weapon was essentially useless.

As the giant stomped it’s foot down, missing Keith by an inch or so, Lance rolled to the side, dodging another blow from it’s sword, and watching as Keith’s bayard sparked against the giant’s shin, making about the same impact on the giant as Lance’s shot had.

“Keith! Fall back!” Lance shouted, “Our bayards don’t work against it!”

Keith glanced back at him, tucking and rolling out of the way as it’s foot came down where had had been standing a moment before.

As it turned to attempt to squish Keith once more, Lance noticed something off about the color of it’s neck.

On the back of it’s neck, at the base of it’s skull there was a patch of skin that was paler than the rest.

Suddenly, Lance knew exactly what they had to do.

“Keith!” He yelled, waving to get his attention.

“I’m a little busy right now!” Keith retorted, running backwards as the giant attempted to grab him with a minivan sized hand.

“We have to hit it’s neck!” Lance waved frantically, “It’s neck!”

“What!?” Keith wove desperately between it’s feet, trying to avoid the giant hand attempting to scoop him off the ground.

“Just…” Lance glanced around them, grinning as he came up with an idea, “Lead him to the trees!” He took off toward the tree line, praying he was right.

Keith watched him run past with a confused expression, “What are you doing?!”

“LEAD HIM TO THE TREES!” Lance shouted over his shoulder, willing his bayard back into it’s compact form.

He reached the tree line just as the giant remembered he had a sword, and that it would be much more efficient to stab Keith, than to grab him.

Lance glanced over at Keith and hoped against hope that he could last at least another two minutes.

He picked the tallest tree nearby and began to climb, hoping that Keith had gotten his message and was leading the giant there at that moment.

His arms ached by the time he got to the highest point he could manage without the branches breaking beneath him, and he turned to find Keith sprinting in his direction, the giant hot on his heels.

He willed his bayard into sword form and jumped just as the giant reached the trees, leaning down to snatch at Keith as he met the barrier.

Lance landed on the giant’s shoulder, wobbling dangerously as it straightened up in confusion. He clung to it’s ear for support as the giant staggered backwards, swatting at it’s own shoulder.

“Hey!” They both glanced down as a rock struck the giant in the nose. Keith was on the ground twenty feet in front of them doing jumping jacks, “Over here!”

The giant lunged, momentarily forgetting about the paladin on its shoulder, and Lance somehow found it within himself to swing around and plunge his sword halfway to the hilt in the weak spot on the giant’s neck.

For a brief and terrifying moment, the giant continued to move and Lance thought he’d been wrong. But sure enough, after continuing another few feet, the giant stumbled, crashing to the ground with an earth-shaking face plant.

Lance, who was already having a tough time with balance, found himself tumbling head over heels in the dust as he was thrown from the giant’s shoulder.

“Lance!”

He heard Keith’s worried voice through the haze in his mind, and coughed weakly, “I’m down here! I’m fine!”

Keith found him in the dust, and helped him up, brushing off some of the dirt from his armor.

“That was some quick thinking.” Keith remarked, almost absent mindedly, and Lance was taken aback by the sudden compliment.

“Thanks.” He grinned, “Those were some sick dodges on your part, dude.”

Keith met his eyes with a small smile, “I guess we are a good team.”

Lance found himself rolling his eyes affectionately, and wondered how they had gone from tense silence to casual (almost flirtatious?) banter.

After a moment Keith cleared his throat and Lance glanced away, suddenly realizing he’d been staring, “I guess we’d better go find out what the last trial is.”

“Yeah,” Lance rubbed the back of his neck, glancing up to where his bayard was still stuck in the neck of the giant, “I guess we’d better.”

It took him nearly ten minutes to remove his bayard, and after that it was another thirty minutes of uphill walking.

This time they were able to make conversation and Lance grudgingly admitted to himself that not only was Keith not bad company, but he was actually starting to make Lance enjoy this little trip of theirs. Until they hit the third trial of course.

This time, the change was more subtle. There was no giant, or booming voice, or shifting trees, to announce the start of the last trial, in fact what finally tipped Lance off in the end was the way the shadows seemed to start playing tricks with his eyes.

“Woah!” Lance jumped back, startling Keith in the middle of his story about the time Shiro had broken him out of detention at the Garrison, “Did you see that?”

“Uh, no?” Keith frowned at him, “I’m sure you’re just seeing things Lance.”

“No, man, I swear…” He trailed off, wondering when it had gotten so cold all of the sudden, “Keith, I think the third trial has begun.”

“Uh, I don’t know about you, but I didn’t exactly hear anything announcing the trial like the last two times.” Keith rolled his eyes, continuing on down the path.

Lance grit his teeth, “Look, you don’t have to be so grumpy, all I’m saying is that something isn’t right.”

“Oh yeah, because you’re intuitions have been sooo trustworthy in the past.” Keith stopped in his tracks, and folding his arms.

“Oh yeah?” Lance narrowed his eyes, “

“Oh yeah? Well if you’re so great, then maybe you should just go on alone!”

“Fine!” Lance shouted, “Maybe I will!”

He turned on his heel and actually marched away a good ten feet before coming to his senses, “Wait a minute…”

He whipped around, “I know what you’re doing!” He shouted at the trees, “This isn’t real, you’re just showing me stuff I don’t like about Keith! You’re making him say these things to get me to leave him, well guess what? I WON’T”

“Are you sure about that, Lance?”

He whipped around to find Keith standing right behind him, a sinister smile on his face.

“Maybe you’re just overthinking things, isn’t that what you’re best at? Making big deals out of nothing? Being a whiny little brat who does nothing but hinder the team?”

“No.” Lance shook his head, ignoring his self doubt for once, drowning it out with thoughts about earth, his mom, that surprised little laugh Keith makes when he tells jokes that are actually funny…

“You’re not Keith.” Lance glared at Not-Keith, shrinking back in horror as Not-Keith began to transform, growing a good three feet, his skin turning purple, his teeth sharpening and his hands turning to claws.

Not-Keith turned yellow glowing eyes on him, and Lance swallowed heavily as his knife elongated into his Blade of Marmora sword.

“Uhhh… Keith? Buddy?” Lance laughed nervously, “I.. uh, I take it back?”

Not-Keith growled and pounced, and Lance screamed like a little girl, dodging out of the way as he was almost impaled on the sword of one of his closest friends.

“Keith!” he backed up, reluctantly summoning his own sword, “I don’t want to hurt you!”

“FIGHT ME!” Not-Keith roared, whipping toward him at breakneck speeds.

Lance felt the wind knock out of him as Not-Keith slammed him against a tree, “YOU COWARD, FIGHT ME!”

“N-no!” Lance choked out, struggling to breathe as Keith held a clawed hand against his throat. His bayard was still in his hand and Not-Keith had apparently decided to choke the life out of him instead of stab him with hi sown sword.

“Keith!” He cried desperately, “I’m not going to hurt you!”

Not-Keith grinned wickedly, his elongated fangs inches from Lance’s face, “Even at the expense of your own life?”

Lance met his eyes with a glare, and did his best to look confident as he lost feeling in his brain.

And then, something unexpected happened. Not-Keith blinked, his eyes returning to their usual violet, “Good answer.”

And with that he vanished, and Lance collapsed to the ground gasping for air.

“Lance?”

His heart hurt at the frantic tone of Keith’s voice and glanced up as Keith rushed over, nearly tackling him in a hug.

“Woah, woah,” Lance wheezed, “Not so tight.” He said, as he gripped the back of Keith’s jacket like a life line.

“Sorry,” Keith tried to pull back and Lance held on.

“Not so fast samurai,” Lance buried his face in Keith’s neck, feeling him chuckle softly as his arms returned to clutching him.

After a few minutes of making sure each other were safe, that they weren’t injured, and that their eyes were definitely not glowing yellow, they finally seemed to notice their new surroundings.

The trees were gone, replaced with plants of all kinds, almost like the palace gardens they had walked through what felt like years ago.

This garden was slightly more eerie; just a little bit too pristine, just a little bit too quiet.

Slowly, cautiously, Lance and Keith made their way toward the center, following the sounds of a bubbling fountain, and sure enough…

“The fountain of flowers.” Lance whispered.

“I can see why they named it that.” Keith scoffed, and Lance had to agree.

Not only was the three tiered fountain wreathed in flowers and winding ivy, but the stone itself was carved with intricate murals of flowers.

Lance could see every type of flower he’s ever encountered carved into this fountain, some he could have sworn were from different planets, one or two from Earth even… but he couldn’t tell for sure.

“Look.” Keith pointed.

At the base of the fountain was a plaque, next to two ancient looking goblets.

“Are these safe to drink out of?” Lance wondered, picking on up and blowing on the rim, watching a fine trail of dust float away in the breeze.

“Lance, cut it out.” Keith rolled his eyes affectionately, bending down to inspect the plaque, “Holy shit, come check this out.”

Curious, Lance walked over and began to read, his eyes widening with every word.

“The two of you have come, to destroy that which binds you, though with a little push in the right direction, you might yet still recover, that which you first saw in one another.”

“So this whole time,” Keith glanced up at Lance, “The mountain has been trying to tell us that we just needed to work out our differences?”

“It was trying to make us understand stuff about each other all along.” Lance muttered, “The first trial-“

“Knowledge,” Keith swallowed nervously, “It wanted us to prove what we knew about each other… Which means the second trial was-“

“Communication.” Lance realized, “Without proper communication we wouldn’t have been able to defeat the giant. And the third trial…”

They glanced at one another, realizing at the same time, “Trust.”

“In both ourselves…” Lance started.

“And each other.” Keith finished.

“So now that we have all of this bonding under our belts,” Lance smiled at Keith wryly, “It wants us to decide whether or not we actually want to break our connection.”

They both stared at the fountain, at it’s intricate design, and the crystal clear water bubbling through it. The cups sat innocently before them, and Lance glanced up at Keith, already knowing his answer.

-

“And so then we fell unconscious, and woke back up in the palace with no memory of getting back down the mountain.” Lance finished telling the story, looking to Keith for affirmation.

“Yep.” Keith nodded, “That’s how it went.”

The others sat around them on the couch listening to them tell the story of the trials, all of them looking amazed except for Pidge.

“There’s no way you two actually fought a golden giant just to annul your marriage.”

“We totally did!” Lance folded his arms, “Tell her, Keith!”

Keith smiled softly, “I think it was bronze actually, but yeah, we did that.”

Pidge continued to look skeptical, but seemed to let it go for the time being. Now it was Hunk’s turn to look skeptical, “And you two… you’re both okay? The king said this was supposed to be some harrowing, emotional, deadly, journey, but you both look perfectly fine.”

“You call this fine?” Lance pulled down the front of his shirt to reveal a deep bruise setting in just below his collarbone. He wasn’t quite sure whether he had gotten that from the giant, or from Not-Keith, but for the sake of his ego he was going to go with the giant.

“Where’s you’re bruise, Keith?” Pidge asked, “Was vision Lance that easy to beat?”

“Hey!”

Keith smirked at him, “Of course, piece of cake- OW!”

“There,” Lance said smugly, “Now he has a bruise.”

Everyone burst out laughing at the wounded look on Keith’s face, and Shiro announced it was time for bed.

“The past two days we’ve gone through a tough battle, the harrowing journey of Keith and Lance’s marriage, and worst of all,” He shuddered, “A feast in our honor. I think it’s time we all get a good night’s sleep so the empire doesn’t have a one up on us next time we face them.”

Everyone nodded, yawning, and Lance made it all the way back to his room before noticing that he was being followed.

“I thought you were going to want to talk.” Lance smiled wryly, leaning up against the wall outside his room, “What’s plaguing your mind, mullet?”

Keith raised an eyebrow, “You know what’s plaguing my mind.”

And of course, Lance did.

His mind flashed back to the small tinge of regret he’d felt as he downed the contents of the magic goblet, watching Keith do the same.

Now, as he carefully studied Keith’s body language, he knew that Keith was thinking the same thing he was, “Those trials were for people who were actually married. People who dated, and decided they loved one another enough to bind themselves together for the rest of their lives.”

He watched the way Keith bit his lip, his eyes studying Lance’s face carefully, “Not only that,” Lance continued, “But according to the king, most of them never even made it through alive, but us… We went through it like nothing.”

Keith scoffed.

“Okay maybe not nothing,” Lance smiled wryly as Keith edged closer, “but we definitely didn’t die so maybe-“

He was cut off as Keith leaned in, pressing their lips together. If he was being honest, it was probably the best kiss he’d ever had.

Keith pushed him gently against the wall, mindful of his bruise, as Lance ran his hands up over Keith’s chest to cup his face, angling his head so that their mouths pressed together like they were made to be a pair.

When they finally broke apart, Lance twirling a strand of Keith’s hair around one finger absently, Keith smiled softly, still holding Lance captive against the wall. Not that he was complaining.

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

Lance raised an eyebrow, “I was saying, that we definitely win the best couple award. Also…” He waved a hand and the door to his room slid open, “I was wondering if you’d like to spend the night.”

Keith rolled his eyes, tugging him by the hand into his own room, “As if you had to ask.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I wrote this in one sitting, literally off the top of my head, at 2 a.m. for practice, so I'll probably come back and edit it... Also I'll probably write an epilogue if people are interested?
> 
> Either way please let me know what you thought of this fic down in the comments! 
> 
> Thanks for reading :)


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